She walked through the doorway and was feeling out of place. She examined the room; it was not quite as trashed as she figured it would be. The real mess was his bag open on the floor with clothes spilling out of it. She noticed hanging from the bureau, clothes in a plastic bag.
Examining it, she realized it was reminiscent of the "I Want It That Way" video. She saw a pair of dark denim jeans, a blue long sleeve shirt and a wool, long peacoat. Thinking to herself, "Oh, God. Jes is actually making them wear that?" she headed over towards the wooden closet.
He noticed her first stop in the room was near the dresser and he inquired, "Find anything you want?"
"Huh?" she asked as she looked up at him lying on the bed. She didn't even realize he was watching her.
"You're checking out my clothes there."
"Yeah, I know. I am none too impressed," she answered as she looked through the rest of the clothes that were hanging.
He looked minorly disappointed in her opinion. Giving off a small chuckle through tension he felt, "Tell me something good."
"Well, I like the blue shirt," Nic defended while she pulled it out.
"Yeah, it's nice. What don't you like about that outfit?" trying to get into her head and wonder. He figured she was judging the clothes as a fan, and not just a friend or a professional.
"I just don't like the long coats. They never do anything for you." She then stopped quickly realizing that her last statement made her sound like she was aware of the fact that he wore the coats a few to many times.
With a smirk, "I'm interested to hear this." She put the shirt back into the bureau and headed over to the table taking a seat, purposely ignoring his comment. "Well, ya gonna tell me?"
Trying to be read innocent of her comment, "Tell you what?"
"What did you mean by that? They never do anything for me?"
In a short tone, "Nothing."
"Oh, come on. Tell me. I'm interested." With that comment he sat up against the headboard watching her. Kevin could tell with her shifting in the seat that she was uncomfortable in the situation and conversation. After some silence, he interrupted her thoughts, "Nevermind. I'm sorry."
"What? What are you sorry for?"
"You seem bothered." She began to bow her head wondering how she was going to get herself out of this. She didn't want to answer and make it sound like she has been pining over him, even though she has been attracted to him. But at the same time, she didn't want to ignore him.
Casually she responded, "It's nothing really. It's just something stupid and silly."
"No, really. We don't have to talk about this."
She almost wanted to; Seeing him in the nicer, shorter jackets would mean something to her. Nicole wasn't sure what it would mean, but just to know he did it because she suggested it, not to mention the fact that he would look better.
A few minutes went by while they watched the TV with Kevin mainly flipping around the channels not watching any one program. She decided to continue the conversation where they began and spoke hesitantly, "They make you look bad."
"What? Who's they?" Thinking she was changing the subject to whatever was bothering her, or
even the TV, he was quickly confused.
"No, not who. The trenchcoats. They make you look bad."
He was now interested more than before, "How so?"
"I don't know. I mean, you are tall enough, and even though long hcoats look better on taller guys, they just don't do anything good." He began to wonder if she was right about the fact that they don't do anything for him. As his mind wondered off, thinking about all the long coats he had worn, she returned to her talk. "They cover you up."
Interested at the way the conversation was going, he asked, "Cover me up? What am I covering up?"
The only answer in her head was his nice body. But, answering that would make her seem like a fan, being exactly the opposite of what Nicole was going for. She kept searching for another answer, or just another way to phrase it. She placed her elbow on the table and her head on her hand. Still trying to find another way, she just blurted out, "Your body." She brought her hand up to her forehead, covering her eyes, wincing and thinking to herself, "Your body? Nic, you are a moron." Neither of them spoke a word in the silence. Biting her lower lip, she picked up her head and found him looking at her.
His mind began to recall all the times he wore trenchcoats; he liked them; he felt mature in them. Then, in mid-thought, he responded, "You're right." She sighed in relief bringing her hand down to under her chin. She began to laugh to herself which he noticed and asked her, "What?"Not wanting to answer "nothing" and start up the dismissed conversation again she decided to continue and wander onto what seemed like cautious grounds. "I just didn't think you'd agree with me. Let alone consider the comment, 'Your body,' as a thoughtful one," beganing to laugh at herself again.
He joined her in with the laughing, "Yeah, I've been told a lot of things. But I haven't heard the comment, 'Your body,' in quite some time." She began to smile some more and became comfortable in the seat, kicking her feet up onto the bed. "Comfortable?" he asked in response to her feet on the bed with a sly smile. Nicole just smiled and nodded, feeling more comfortable just with the presence of being in the room--his room--let alone there was warmth there. And the chair was a definite step up from the hallway floor. Kevin put the remote down on the bed and looked at her. "What did you think I meant earlier when I answered the door?"
"What?" Not thinking about the first conversation they had earlier, she was wondering where this was going.
"When I was pointing at your shirt, you swung at me and got upset. What did you think I meant?"
Recalling the embarrassment of before, "Oh that. Oh, well, I don't know."
He could tell she was holding something back and wanted to hear it. From the trenchcoat talk, he knew she would be honest, but it just took some cracking. "Come, on. You do know."
"Well, I don't know." He looked at her like a mother who knew she was being lied to. She began to feel guilt by the look alone, not to mention who was giving the look. "I don't know, you were pointing at my chest, saying Aloha. I don't know. It was all just very weird." She began to sink into the chair with most of her legs on the bed. The chair wasn't as comfortable as she first thought.
"So you thought I was harassing you?" he asked accusingly of her.
"No, no. Well, not really. I don't know. I know you aren't like that. And I was just upset about my room, and I just didn't know what to think." She could tell she was rambling and became afraid. When she rambled, anything could come out before she was aware of the thoughts.
Kevin sat up and moved to the other side of the bed so his head was at the foot of the bed. Lying down on his side resting his head on his hand he asked, "You know I'm not like that? How do you know?"
"Well, just from seeing you. The way you act. You don't seem like the harassing type. Now AJ, there's the harassing type."
Kevin began to chuckle at her comment about AJ and then noticed her moving around in the chair to be comfortable. "You wanna lie down here?" She began to feel excited, yet weird about lying in the same bed as him. It occurred to her that it was a king-sized bed that had plenty of room for five bodies, let alone just the two of theirs, and after all it was Kevin's bed. She stood up and sat against the headboard facing him. Looking at her, he could see the clock out of the corner of his eye. He glanced at and read the time of "3:27"
Noticing him looking at the nightstand she looked. "Oh my. It's quite late. I'm keeping you up aren't I?" Nicole began to feel bad, and didn't want to impose anymore than she already had.
"No, I'm not too keen on sleeping right now." Nicole looked at him, wondering what he meant by that. He could tell she was thinking about his comment. "I haven't had the best time falling asleep lately. A lot of things to worry about, I would suppose. But once I'm asleep, there's no hope of getting me up."
"Sounds familiar," she responded thinking of herself.
"Oh yeah?" Nicole nodded with a slight smile to answer Kevin. "Never would have guessed."
"Oh yeah?" He nodded with the smile the same way Nicole just had. "Why do you say that?" She was now the one who was interested in what was to be said.
"I don't know," he responded dropping his head and looking at the bed. She gave him the motherly lying look. He looked up at her. Seeing it, he began to laugh. "Ok, Ok. You got me." He took a few moments to figure how to phrase it. "You just don't seem like the late night type of person."
She was astonished with his answer. Thinking of all the times she never gets to bed before midnight, no matter what time she needed to be up in the morning to work, she dropped her jaw. "What?"
"Well, it's just that," he was cautiously choosing his words. "It's not like you ever stay out with us, or even come out."
"Because I don't come out with you guys, I'm an anti-social early bird?"
Defending himself, "That's not what I said."
"But that's what you meant."
He paused, thinking, "yeah that's what I always thought," but responded differently. "So, I'm wrong?"
"Very wrong." She felt like she wanted to defend herself telling him about all the times she goes out with her friends from home. But she also didn't want to seem like she was reaching, or stretching, for her defense.
"Then why don't you ever come out with us?
"I was invited?" she asked. She always felt like her only place with the guys was working for them.
"What makes you think you never are?"
"Well, because I've never heard the words, 'Nicole, you coming?' Besides, it's not like Jessica goes with you either. I figured it was uncharted territory."
"Jes never comes because she is an early bird. From now on you are always invited to come out, if you can stay up."
"Gee, thanks. I think." They both started to chuckle.
A few moments of silence fell upon them, until Kevin broke it. "How did you get this job?"
"Huh?" she asked, feeling threatened, thinking why she wouldn’t be able to do the job?
"You've got the dream job of half the female population. How did you get to be so lucky?"
"Oh, that. Well, I knew Jessica from a job we worked at together, a little while ago. We kept in touch from time to time and she let me know she had this sweet job with you guys. It was what she always wanted to do. Then one day we joked around that she had so much work to do that she needed an assistant and that I should be it. Next thing I knew I had an appointment with TransCon."
"Talk about connections."
"Yep. So that's the story. Nothing big, just luck like you said." Nicole began to slide down against the headboard and extend her feet out.
"Comfortable?"
"Not exactly." She laid down on the bed and bent up her knees to be more relaxed. "I can't see you now."
He sat up and moved so he was lying across from her, about three feet away, with his elbow bent and his head resting on his hand. "How's that?"
"Good. Now where were we?"
"I was asking you about your stacked job here."
"Oh yeah. That's right." She looked at the clock to see that it was about half an hour later than before. "4 am." "I can't remember the last time I was up this late and not an ounce bit tired."
She looked at him as he thought. "I can. The last awards show we did, we were up very late at the after party."
"After party. That's right. I forgot about it for tomorrow."
"Yeah, you coming?" he asked. Then nudging her, "This is the invitation."
She laughed, "Well I guess I have to now after I complained of no invites." He laughed along with her. Thinking of the fact the guys normally bring dates to the awards shows she asked, "Who you bringing?"
"Kristin," he responded without hesitation. "You?"
"Well, I was thinking of going with this really crazy guy who you may know. He's a little wild and 'colorful'" she said as she used her fingers to do quotes around the word.
He laughed, "AJ? Why you bringing him?"
"It's more like he's bring me. Well, more like we're just gonna hang together. He claims he knows how to 'get a sista' hooked up.'" She laughed again and he joined.
"I wish ya luck with 'getting hooked up' then. But, yeah, from what I've heard, AJ's pretty good at that."
"I figure even if he's not, I'll have fun. Well, until he finds his gal who he’ll want on his arm for the rest of the night. Either way it should be interesting." Kevin nodded his head in agreement.
The conversation began to die, as Nicole grew tired. Her eyelids became heavy and closed every few seconds. Kevin decided to let her sleep. He watched her, as she seemed to be so peaceful. It reminded him of the first time he watched Kristin sleep. He began to miss Kristin and got excited to see her the next night. It had been almost three months since they last saw each other.
Once it seemed like Nicole was fully asleep, he slipped under the covers and pulled some over Nicole up to her waist. Within a few moments, she pulled them up to cover her upper body. He fell asleep soon later.